A US soldier (C) and South Korean soldiers wearing gas masks participate in a decontamination training conducted by US Army's 23rd Chemical Battalion at a military training field in Yeoncheon, northeast of Seoul, on May 16, 2013.(AFP Photo / Jung Yeon-Je)

Amid an annual joint military exercise between the US and South Korea that involves thousands of troops and numerous aircraft and warships, American Special Forces groups run trainings to prepare for potential guerrilla warfare across the DMZ.

For three days in April 2013, two elite teams of 12 men each from
the US Special Operations Forces carried out simulated missions
into North Korea with two South Korean counterparts, the 7th and
11th Republic of Korea (ROK) Special Forces. The training -
Balance Knife 13-1 - focused on how to move commandos in and out
of North Korea, and how to build an “indigenous resistance
organization” once inside, according to the January 2014
edition of Special Warfare, an academic journal of the US Army’s
John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.

Many South Korean commandos “still have family in the North
that they may or may not have contact with,” the journal
said, good for growing “strong relationships that transcend
NK ideology and can serve as a foundation for the development of
a loyal resistance organization.”

The simulated actions are part of the larger Foal Eagle exercise
conducted near Iksan and Damyan, South Korea. The US has over
28,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines in South
Korea, though the specialized training speaks to just how
familiar commandos must be in case of an immediate crisis.

The elite American special forces involved are Operational
Detachment Alphas 1336 and 1333, both of the Army’s Charlie
Company, 3rd Battalion of the 1st Special Forces Group.

The review noted that US military experience in Iraq and
Afghanistan showed a need for improved or altered methods of
unconventional warfare to be successful in North Korea. And given
the North has better technology than, say, the Taliban, and a
largely deforested countryside, a “drastic reduction in
battle command capability” requires grounded commandos be
able to operate with less.

North Korea’s “robust Air Defense Artillery threat”
limits helicopter capabilities, for instance. Sparse
infrastructure allows for a North Korean force to patrol large
areas at once. The conditions would largely require opposition
troops to move at night and without convenient air or ground
support in case of emergency.

“If that movement in a denied area with an indigenous
resistance force results in enemy contact,” the Army journal
stated, “then assets such as a quick reaction force and
readily available indirect fires and close-air support will be
the exception rather than the rule.”

The review said that evacuating wounded persons from North Korea
could take days or even a week compared to Afghanistan, where it
takes US forces an average of 42 minutes.

“During the initial-entry stage in the [Korean Theatre of
Operations], the movement of wounded personnel will be from
inside a denied area, across a border, to a secure area by
clandestine means,” the report said, highlighting the added
pressure for medics in case of emergency.

The Balance Knife exercises to prepare for worst-case scenarios
on the Korean Peninsula are stressed as practice in case of a
crisis in diplomacy or a sudden collapse of Kim Jong Un’s
regime
- comparatively less stable than his father’s. The trainings are
not meant to be a backing of a potential insurgency into
Pyongyang, the review said, and exercises are intended to be used
for defensive preparations in case of a provocation from the
North.

North Korea’s shelling of Yeonpyeon island in 2010 is the kind of
abrupt incident the commando exercises have focused on in the
past, Medium reported, following up on Special Warfare’s review.

Last week, North Korea demanded
South Korea and the US halt their annual military drill, calling
it “a serious provocation.” If the drill isn’t stopped,
North-South relations “will plunge into a deadlock and
unimaginable holocaust,” Pyongyang said.

“We sternly warn the US and the South Korean authorities to
stop the dangerous military exercises which may push the
situation on the peninsula and the north-south ties to a
catastrophe,” said the spokesman for the Committee for the
Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) in a statement, reported
[North Korea’s] KCNA state news.

The US and South Korea, which have shared the cost of hosting
American soldiers since 1991, are planning to stage military
exercises in late February. This year, the US plans to boost its
military presence in South Korea, pledging to send another 800
troops in addition to those 28,000 which are already in the
country.